Academic Courses

Teaching at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

At the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Jeff teaches courses designed to introduce students to the practices necessary to stimulate and manage innovation in a business. Always ahead of his time, Jeff created a one of the first MBA top rated courses on Leading Creativity and Innovation in the 1980’s at Ross. The class has changed considerably over the years to portray current challenges to innovation, but is still in high demand. It has a ponderous waitlist to be admitted, and alumni of over a thousand innovation leaders worldwide.

“SODOTO”: The Hands-On Learning

Hands-on learning is the name of the game in the field of business innovation. Jeff follows the method of “See one, Do one, Teach one,” or “SODOTO,” when teaching his students. Following SODOTO, which utilizes the master-apprentice model, students first watch a process, then perform that process, and finally teach it to someone else. This method of learning helps students to learn by doing, rather than simply listening to a lecture. Jeff teaches his students like he teaches his clients at the Innovatrium, by urging them to learn through experience and experiments.

Jeff teaches several types of courses, both at the graduate level and otherwise, including MBA, BBA, and EMBA courses. He has been faculty director in many Executive Education classes as well. In all of his classes, Jeff emphasizes how innovation tools and methods can be successfully employed in real work situations. Each class consists of several basic components including: (1) a framework, (2) a business case, (3) a methodology or tool, and (4) an application to a practical business situation. Each segment of his courses is designed to engage students in a conceptual and experiential application of innovation practices. Check out Jeff’s faculty page in order to learn more about his academic work.